400F

株式会社400F (400F Inc., "Four Hundred F") is a Tokyo-based fintech company that operates Okaneko (オカネコ), a platform matching people who have questions or concerns about money with financial professionals. Users answer roughly 20 questions on a smartphone to receive a diagnosis of their household finances — benchmarked against others of the same area, age group and household composition — after which advisers send comment-based advice and users can continue in individual chat. The diagnosis and chat consultation are offered free to users.

Around the Okaneko brand the company runs several adjacent lines: an online financial adviser business combining financial services intermediation with insurance agency operations; the owned media property Okaneko Magazine, which publishes consumer money content (retirement funds, mortgages, investing) with in-article chat access to professionals; Okaneko Insurance Comparison (オカネコ保険比較), an online-completed insurance comparison and consultation service; Okaneko Tenshoku, a job-change service; and OKANE-KOllege, a one-to-one household-improvement coaching service launched in 2025. For financial institutions it offers Okaneko Partners (previously positioned as "Okaneko DX"), which applies generative AI and data analysis to customer-experience optimization, sales analysis and compliance checking. The company also holds a fee-charging employment placement license (13-ユ-315915), a worker dispatch license (派13-316301) and a real-estate broker license obtained in 2025.

Its registered address is FinGATE BLOOM 4F, Kabutocho Dai-2 Heiwa Building, 9-1 Nihonbashi Kabuto-cho, Chuo-ku, Tokyo. The board includes chairman Masato Takamura, president and CEO Jin Nakamura, directors Tomohiko Ota and Ryo Kato, and auditor Seiji Murakami. Capital is stated at 100 million yen and headcount at up to about 100 people.

Founding story

400F was established on 1 November 2017 as a subsidiary of お金のデザイン (Money Design), where CEO 中村仁 had become representative director and CEO in March 2017. Nakamura graduated from Kansai University in 2005 and joined Nomura Securities, working in branch sales, at Nomura Institute of Capital Markets Research's New York office, then in sales planning and corporate sales in Kyoto, before joining Money Design in April 2016. He became representative director and CEO of 400F in July 2018, and the company released 「お金の健康診断」 (later renamed Okaneko) in November 2018; an MBO negotiation followed in July 2020. The name 400F refers to the 400 francs paid by Belgian painter Anna Boch for Van Gogh's "Red Vineyards Near Arles" (1888) — the only painting sold in his lifetime — as an emblem of recognizing value before the market does.

Business model

400F operates a consumer platform that is free for end users and monetizes through the financial side: an online financial adviser business combining financial services intermediation and insurance agency operations, insurance comparison, job-change placement (backed by a paid employment placement license), real-estate brokerage, and B2B solutions sold to financial institutions under the Okaneko Partners/Okaneko DX brand. Owned media (Okaneko Magazine) funnels readers into chat consultations with professionals.

Revenue derives from intermediation and agency activity around financial products (financial services intermediation, insurance agency, fund and advisory product distribution), employment placement and worker dispatch, real-estate brokerage, and enterprise engagements with financial institutions for customer-experience DX, sales analysis and compliance automation. The company states its sales have been growing 2–3x.

Traction

Cumulative Okaneko users passed 1 million in July 2024 and 1.2 million in June 2025. The Okaneko Tenshoku job-change service reported roughly 350% year-on-year growth in successful placements as of July 2025. The company reports sales growth of 2–3x, capital of 100 million yen, and headcount of up to about 100. It has been covered by TBS, Nippon TV, BS TV Tokyo, Nikkei CNBC, Forbes Japan, Nikkei and other outlets.

Latest developments

In July 2025 400F signed a basic agreement toward a capital and business alliance with SBI SECURITIES and SBI MONEY PLAZA, and formally launched Okaneko Partners for financial institutions. In October 2025 it began a proof-of-concept, Okaneko for Japan Post Bank, to build a customer path from ATMs. In February 2026 it met the basic items of the Life Insurance Association of Japan's business-quality evaluation standards for multi-carrier agencies and became a certified agency. It continues to publish regular consumer surveys on NISA, mortgages, crypto holdings and subscriptions.